Astros get off to sloppy start in loss to Rangers

Kazmir's poor outing,few clutch hits, sloppy fielding add up to loss

Evan Drellich

September 25, 2015Updated: September 26, 2015 1:50am

Photo: Karen Warren, Staff

Assisted by trainer Rex Jones, second baseman Jose Altuve leaves the field in pain after colliding with Astros teammate Carlos Correa while chasing a seventh-inning fly ball into shallow center field Friday night at Minute Maid Park.

Assisted by trainer Rex Jones, second baseman Jose Altuve leaves...

What could have been is rapidly becoming the greatest question for the Astros, not what will be.

They could figure it out with eight games to go. But you could dig 20 feet under Tal's Hill and still not unearth a reason to believe they will.

The Astros' midseason trades look worse by the day and so does the team's play. Even after Scott Kazmir's flop Friday night, when he allowed every Texas Rangers run in a 6-2 loss at Minute Maid Park before 35,180 to open the biggest series of the year, the Astros have somehow maintained a lead in the second wild-card spot.

But for most of this month, they haven't resembled an actual playoff team. The Astros are 7-15 in September, and the first-place Rangers have taken eight straight head-to-head meetings dating to July.

Kazmir, the Houston native who's a free agent after the year, allowed 10 hits in 32⁄3 innings. With just one strikeout and a fastball around 91 mph, he didn't resemble the pitcher the Astros acquired from Oakland in late July.

More Information

American League West race

RANGERS (84-69, first place)

Friday: def. Astros 6-2

Today: 12:05 at Astros

ASTROS (80-74, 41/2 GB)

Friday: lost to Rangers 6-2

Today: 12:05 vs. Rangers

ANGELS (79-74, 5 GB)Friday: def. Mariners 8-4

Today: 8:05 vs. Mariners

Astros update

Today: Texas at Minute Maid Park: 12:05 p.m.

Pitchers: Collin McHugh (17-7) vs. Derek Holland (3-3).

TV/radio: Fox; 790 AM and 850 AM (Spanish).

Manager A.J. Hinch said there was no health concern.

"Stuff-wise, I felt good, I really did," Kazmir said. "Couple pitches that I left out over the plate that hurt me. All in all, just didn't get done. The past two starts have not been great. … I just have to clean it up moving forward."

Friday's 3-hour, 49-minute game was a stew of complaints. In consecutive innings, Astros fielders bumped into one another and the ball fell to the ground.

"We did a few things that are uncharacteristic that aren't the team that we have been leading up to this month," Hinch said. "That is indicative of guys really trying to do a lot. … Obviously, at the plate, we're squeezing the bat a little bit, trying to have somebody be that hero when we need it.

Heady hopes of coming back to win the American League West were predicated on a three-game sweep this weekend.

The Astros have lost three straight and are 4-for-29 with runners in scoring position in those games. The Rangers were up 6-0 before the Astros had their first run, and the Rangers' lead is 4½ games.

"There is no exhale," Rangers skipper Jeff Banister said. "We're not going to look up until it's done. You don't relax."

Ironically, an exhale is what the Astros want.

"It'll weigh on you, whether it's the losses or some of the struggles," Hinch said. "Consistency wins in this game. … They know we're in the foxhole with them. I'm going to continue to give the opportunity to the guys that have done it. We're all looking for that one breakthrough hit where everybody can exhale. This is pennant-race baseball, and it's a big-boy business."

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Kazmir's changeup has significantly dipped in usage and effectiveness, and his September ERA in five starts has exploded to 6.20 - which isn't quite as bad as the bullpen's ERA was this month coming into this game (6.63).

What could have been had Kazmir pitched better down the stretch? Or simply thrown to first base accurately more often? He made his seventh error Friday, the most for any big league pitcher.

The Rangers were up 1-0 in the first inning after a two-out Adrian Beltre walk and Prince Fielder double.

Fielder went 8-for-16 with three homers against the Astros in Arlington last week, but in the six games that followed was just 2-for-24. He clearly likes seeing the Astros, because he was 2-for-5 on Friday.

Two more Texas runs scored in the second, the first on Kazmir's throwing error to first base. Elvis Andrus laid a bunt down after Mitch Moreland's double, and Moreland scored when Kazmir threw it away.

Later in the inning, a dying quail to left field off the broken bat of Shin-Soo Choo popped off of Preston Tucker's glove as he dove forward. The single grew the deficit to 3-0.

Tucker's near catch is the metaphor for everything the Astros do right now: trying, but not succeeding.

"It seemed like it just kept going further and further away from me the more I closed in on it," Tucker said.

Choo's two-run homer to right field put the Rangers ahead 5-0 in the fourth. One more run came home in the inning on a Fielder single to chase Kazmir.

Luis Valbuena's two-run homer in the fourth inning was a rocket off Rangers starter Yovani Gallardo that banged off the façade of the second deck in right field.

Otherwise, the Astros were feeble at the plate, going 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position, giving no help to a bullpen that actually did well. Five relievers combined for 51⁄3 innings of three-hit, shutout ball.

Mistakes add up

The little mistakes stick out.

In the bottom of the sixth, Jonathan Villar led off with a pinch-hit single and stole second base. When Jose Altuve hit a ground ball to shortstop, Villar went for third and was thrown out easily.

With the Astros down four runs, why would Villar run? Hinch said he should not have.

In the second, Tucker crushed a ball to center with two out. It banged off the wall just to the right of Tal's Hill. Next year, once the Hill is removed, the shot is likely a homer.

"That's kind of just how things went tonight," Tucker said. "It kind of snowballed on us."